PAC-12 CONFERENCE MEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 11, 2021

Mick Cronin

UCLA Bruins

Postgame Press Conference

Oregon State - 83, UCLA - 79.

THE MODERATOR: We'll start with a opening statement from coach.

MICK CRONIN: Oh what I told the team is between me and the team.

Q. When do you think the turning point was, and I know that there was a battle there going into the locker room, but what happened coming out of the locker room with these guys?

MICK CRONIN: Look, we gave up 58 percent in the second half and 50 from three. We knew Ethan Thompson was going to put his head down. If he lost, today was his last game. We weren't there. We didn't close the gap on the spin. I failed to get the job done, if you want to know the truth, defensively, with this team. I really failed to get the job done on the defensive end, and obviously it's extremely frustrating for me to give up 58 percent repeatedly our second half defense. In my mind, that's a lack of toughness, but it's my job, it's my job to find five guys that can get some stops as a collective group. Obviously you can point to free throws, you can point to the fact that we got good shooters that can't make a shot. With the construction of this team, if we don't shoot the 3 well, we're just not tough and athletic enough to win with defense. And that's off a big sample size, right? You've seen us. It's just hard for us to grind out victories on the defensive end. I'm just giving you like the macro perspective of our team, not this game. We have got to be able -- we got guys that are better shooters than they are defenders, we got to make shots.

Look, to your point, turning point, to me the first play of the second half we put in no effort, no effort defensively at all and just let Thompson jump up and shoot a three like he was just going to go down on his last college game, just on the right wing, away from their bench. We had 16 deflections at halftime, but we had 16 with five minutes left in the first half. The last -- we played five to end the half, 20 in the second half, five in overtime. And the last 30 minutes we had five deflections. In the first 15 minutes we had 16. So our defensive effort is just, is inconsistent, and that's our problem. The turning point is we just, we refused to get in a stance and get stops.

Q. I heard what you said there about defensive toughness, but do you feel like maybe your guys got a little bit tight there in the second half, given what preceded this game and kind of --

MICK CRONIN: No. Not at all. And I know where you're going with it, I just don't believe in that. Not at all. Not at all. This is a new season. We wiped that slate clean on Monday. Today's a new season. This is a different tournament. To me that had nothing, absolutely nothing to do with it. I just, I don't believe in excuses at all. I'm not buying into that one. I just think we got to -- again, it's on me. I got to be able to get some guys that can get some stops at winning time and we just can't. Look at their second half stats, it's impossible to win, you give up 58 percent, 50 from three, and 10 made free throws. That's literally impossible.

Q. Jules Bernard led you in scoring. He did a lot of things and then made some mistakes. What kind of game did you have, what can you say to him after a game that has some highs and some lows in it like that?

MICK CRONIN: Well, right now, we win and lose as a team, first of all. Since Chris has gone down and Johnny was out early, Jules has been rock solid for us all year. He plays 38 minutes tonight, he's 7-13 from the field, 10 rebounds. So he's our -- and he's by far our best perimeter defender. So he's just got to keep his head up and keep getting better. He gets better because he works hard in practice. Every day his effort's by far the most consistent of any guy on our team. That's why he's improved the most since I've gotten here.

Q. How tough of a matchup was Alatishe? It seemed like he was able to do some things just because of his size and athleticism.

MICK CRONIN: Yeah, we knew he was going to be a problem, but our game plan was to not let him catch it in the low post. We failed miserably at that.

Q. What's your level of concern that these last four games will impact the team's standing with the selection committee on Sunday?

MICK CRONIN: Right now, I don't know. I just walked out of a locker room of a tough game.

Q. I know you are already talking about Jules, but that last play in overtime when he tried to kick it out and turn it over, what do you think went wrong on that play and how do you fix that with kind of last-second management going forward?

MICK CRONIN: Look, he was trying to make sure he didn't charge. He was trying to do the right thing. So things happen. Lately, everything that can happen has happened to the Bruins this year. We have had a lot of tough -- from injuries, personal issues, injuries, a lot of stuff's happened to us. The guys have fought through it all. So when the kid's trying to make the right play, you just teach him, you know, do the same thing that my dad told me when I was eight years old, man, you get to the foul line, you got to slow down, get under control. Just keep teaching. But he was trying to do the right thing.

Q. Johnny didn't really play too much in the second half. Was he a hundred percent, is he okay?

MICK CRONIN: I wouldn't say he's a hundred percent by any stretch. He was getting fatigued and it was killing him defensively because he had been heading -- he hadn't done much Saturday, Sunday, Monday. He practiced half speed Tuesday, we tried to baby him as much as possible to get him to game time.

Q. How will you handle these next few days? Are you guys going to take them off, are you going to get back together and practice, how will you kind of handle it?

MICK CRONIN: Really hadn't thought about that one. Didn't plan on not playing tomorrow. So we'll figure things out. We'll definitely watch some film and continue to try to improve. But as far as conditioning and at some point, I mean, even if tomorrow we'll at least watch film, I would say, over the top of my head. But it's hard for me to say because I hadn't really planned it out. It will probably be film tomorrow and then back start trying to build back up. I'm a big believer in individual instruction. So even if we're not killing each other in practice setting, it's late in the year, we got to get in the gym and continue to improve guys' skill level, their shooting. Because right now it's hard for us to win games where we don't make open shots from our best shooters. When Jake, Johnny, and Dave are 3-13, it's just hard for us. Because right now the way our roster is constructed we need to be a lethal three-point shooting team because we're not a lethal athletic team defensively. So we just got to keep trying to -- got to play the hand you're dealt right now, so we got to try to get those guys in the gym and get them back to where they're making open shots.

And obviously Cody's got to, he's been great for us all year, but today was by far not his best game this year. He really struggled today. Really struggled.